A Balancing Act for Life

Author Hubert Rampersad talks about his personal balanced scorecard coaching framework and his views on happiness in life and work

by Marshall Goldsmith

Hubert Rampersad is one of the most interesting people I have ever met. His interests range from corporate quality to individual happiness. His book, Personal Balanced Scorecard: The Way to Individual Happiness, Personal Integrity and Organizational Effectiveness, which has been translated into 20 languages, discusses the intersection of individual and organizational well-being.

He has developed an overall framework that integrates methodologies such as performance management, talent management, and total quality management, and enables organizations and individuals to work together for common benefit.

He and I recently talked about his work, his efforts to integrate individual and organizational benefit, and the connection his integrated model has to coaching. Edited excerpts of our conversation follow:

Hubert, what is the personal balanced scorecard?
The personal balanced scorecard (PBSC) encompasses personal ambition (mission, vision, and key roles), critical success factors, objectives, performance measures, targets, and improvement actions. Personal ambition is a set of guiding principles that clearly states who you are, where you are going, where you want to be, etc., and that embodies your values. The PBSC elements are divided among four perspectives, which should be in balance:

1. Internal: your physical health and mental state

2. External: relations with your spouse, children, friends, employer, colleagues, and others

3. Knowledge and learning: your skills and learning ability

4. Financial: fiscal stability

What I like about your process is that you recognize that individuals have self-interest—and that is O.K. I am always amazed at the way many corporations expect their employees to worship the corporate god and act like they have no self-interest at all. To me, this delusion just promotes phoniness and pretense.

How is your PBSC related to individual and executive coaching?
The PBSC coaching framework consists of 10 steps, which focus on two distinct areas: life and career coaching and executive coaching. PBSC life and career coaching is related to personal effectiveness and growth in life. The emphasis is on excelling in everything you do, making the right choices in developing your future, having a happier and more fulfilling life, and facing new life challenges.

PBSC executive coaching focuses on managers who would like to develop their personal leadership, improve employee performance, enhance employee engagement, empower their employees, create trust and a real learning organization, increase employee self-responsibility and work enjoyment, and ultimately, enhance sustainable organizational effectiveness.

How do you get people to develop self-awareness, to think deeply during this coaching process, about who they are, where they are going, their dreams, their values, and to see the big picture and their place in it?
I've introduced an integrated breathing and silence exercise—as part of the PBSC coaching process—which has proven to be very effective. By paying attention to your own thoughts during this exercise, you can discover your desired identity and you will be able to distance yourself from your preconceived mind-set.

I teach people to be open to all images that come up in their minds, based on personal ambition questions (for example, "What makes me happy?" "Who am I?" or "What is my main purpose in life?"), and listening carefully to the answers of their inner voice to help them learn to look at life with new eyes, and perceive what goes on within them.

That part sounds like fun to me. How is the PBSC related to career development?
Formulation and implementation of one's PBSC lead to career and personal lifestyle choices, continuous personal development, effective use of one's talents, self-learning, continued taking up of challenges, greater awareness of one's responsibilities, and development of one's creativity. Through this, one creates the conditions for sustainable career and talent development.